The Bilbao half of the Grand Slam Final begins tomorrow

10/7/2012 – We have been through many days without a super-tournament, and some of you are probably suffering withdrawal. Not to worry: on Monday the top GMs will be at it again, Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Caruana, Vallejo. The second half of the Fifth Chess Masters Final will be held from October 8-13 in the Central Atrium of the Alhondiga Bilbao, Spain, in a soundproof glass box. Press release.

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São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final

Press release

Bilbao becomes world chess capital holding the Fifth Masters Final of the Grand
Slam starting on Monday

The first leg, held between September 24th and 29th, was held in the
Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. After this first half the Italian Fabiano Caruana
arrives to Bilbao as a leader, with 11 points.

The games will be played in the Central Atrium of the Alhondiga Bilbao
in a dramatic soundproof glass box with view to the public. This glass room
measures 8 x 8m witdth, with a high of 3.5 m and weighs eight tons.

The mayor of Bilbao, Iñaki Azkuna, the world chess champion, Viswanathan
Anand, and Leontxo Garcia, the prestigious chess commentator, presented the
second and final half of the Masters Chess Final, which will be held in Bilbao
between October 8th and 13th in the Alhondiga.

The first half, of the tournament, which took place between September 24th
and 29th was held in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. After this first leg the
Italian Fabiano Caruana is the leader with 11 points, 4 points more than Aronian,
the No. 2 in the world rankings and five points more than Carlsen, No. One in
the world rankings. In the middle of the table we can find the world champion
Anand with five points, and the standing is closed by the Spanish Vallejo and
Karjakin (fifth in the world ranking), both with three points, and at the bottom,
without great chances to overcome this results.

Traditional crosstable after five rounds

Bilbao crosstable after five rounds

Despite the differences accumulated in the first phase of the Final, equality
has defined the development of the tournament so far, since Aronian Anand and
Caruana finished undefeated. In any case, the scoring system applied in the
Chess Masters Final, the so-called "Bilbao rule" – which gives
three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss – makes it
possible for the differences in the standing not to be so extraordinary. In
fact, in the last edition, the Ukrainian Vasily Ivanchuk left Sao Paulo three
points ahead of his nearest rival, the American Nakamura, but the tournament
had to be settled on the last day in a tie between himself and the World No.
one, Magnus Carlsen, who finally achieved victory.

The games will begin at 17:00h in the Central Atrium of the Alhóndiga
and will be played in a spectacular soundproof glass structure, open to public
view. This glass room has a width of 8*8 metres, a height of 3.5 meters, and
weighs eight tons. Games will start on Monday 8th and will last until October
13th, with a rest day on the 10th. The closing ceremony and awards will take
place on October 13th, which is the reason why plays will start at 16.30h that
day.

The Masters Final Grand Slam 2012 will be played by the league system, with
a double round all against all. The winner of the tournament will be the player
to score the most points. The scoring system is governed by the “Bilbao
rule”, which has already begun to be applied in other international tournaments.
The “Sofia rule” is also applied in each play, which states that
only the referee has the power to determine if a game ends tie, avoiding pacts
between players.

The development of each day can be followed from the “Agora”, a
place for the analysis, comments and interviews, conducted by Leontxo García,
with the collaboration of experts and society people from Bilbao. The giant
screen situated above the Agora gives the chance to follow the games live. In
a similar way the journalists can follow the tournament live from a press room
equipped with the latest technology. The development of the games can also be
followed in the official tournament
website.

This Masters Finals Grand Slam continues the global expansion which started
two years ago with the joint development of the tournament in both, Shanghai
and Bilbao. After the success of last year's edition, the tournament has repeated
the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, main financial center of Brasil and the tenth
most populous metropolis in the world. The tournament aims to leak out the limits
of the sports side itself and serve as a link between the two cities in order
to develop common projects in sports, cultural, educational, recreational, economic
and commercial areas. Specifically, a group of businessmen from Bizkaia flown
to the Brazilian economic capital during the days the first half of the tournament
took place, in order to meet with entrepreneurs from Sao Paulo. In addition
to this trade mision, this year the tournament has given special encouragement
to the transmission of chess values among the youngest participants. Threfore,
the tournament has approached to the city´s public schools.

IV Friendship Grand Slam tournament of Bilbao

Alongside the professional competition the IV Friendship tournament will be
held. In this tournament 25 teams of five players each will participate. In
total it will bring together more than 150 people – contenders, technical
teams, referees… The tournament is part of the Basque Circuit of Friendship
tournaments that is played without any economic award. The host club invites
guest clubs to lunch, and the invitees on the other hand return the courtesy
inviting the host back to their own tournament.

Sponsors

Among the sponsors of this great sporting event, which makes Bilbao one of
the world's chess capitals we can find Bilbao's City Council, The Provincial
Council of Bizkaia “Diputacion Foral de Bizkaia”, Euskaltel and
BBK. As collaborators we can find the Basque Government, CAF, CIE Automotive,
GMSM, IDOM, IMBISA, OLABARRI, SACYR, TECUNI, VICONSA and VISCOFAN. Finally,
as friends of this initiative, we have the commercial association of Bilbao,
CARWAGEN, Ribera market, Melia Hotel and Yandiola Restaurant. We must also acknowledge
the assistance of the following media: COPE, Onda Cero, Onda Vasca, Radio Popular,
Radio 7, Tele 7, TeleBilbao, Deia and El Correo.

Player portraits

Fabiano Caruana – the kid from Fischer's neighborhood

If his name were Marco Polo instead of Fabiano, it would suit him very well.
Born in Miami, Florida, of Italian parents, Fabiano Caruana learned chess at
the age of five in Brooklyn, New York, where his parents had relocated, continuing
to study under masters and grandmasters. At the age of twelve, he emigrated
to Spain, then Hungary, and now resides in Lugano, Switzerland. He gained international
attention when he became a grandmaster
at age fourteen, beating the previous US record by Hikaru Nakamura, and
setting the new one for Italy as well. Today he ranks as the top junior in the
world, and is already in the world Top Ten.

His childhood draws a number of curious parallels to Josh Waitzkin’s,
whose story inspired the book
and filmSearching for
Bobby Fischer. For example, both lived in New York, both were discovered
by trainer Bruce Pandolfini, and both played at the Marshall Club as well as
outdoors at Washington Park. Unfortunately, in the US there is a great discrepancy
between the importance given to chess in schools, and the scarce attention to
chess as a professional activity. So much so that after making the difficult
decision to give priority to their son’s tremendous talent, the Caruanas
(Italian-American father and Italian mother) moved to Madrid, Spain, so that
Fabio could train under Boris Zlotnik, who to this day acts as advisor and family
friend.

Logically, while living in Spain, there was pressure from Italy for the boy
to live there, given that he is the best player the country has seen in centuries,
but they opted instead to move to Budapest to allow the blossoming talent to
train under two grandmasters of very opposing styles, Alexander Chernin and
Zoltan Ribli. Their work was then complemented by sporadic visits from former
elite player, Alexander Beliavsky.

The criteria for choosing tournaments was clear– Fabiano gave priority
to those that were part of the World Championship circuit, not because he thought
he was already in a position to win them, but to grow in competitions where
the majority of his rivals had their claws well-sharpened. Since the purpose
was to learn, there were no draws devoid of fight or risk, and his path was
just the opposite, costing him points but that he was convinced would yield
its fruits.

And the seeds he planted grew, since while it seemed for many years that Caruana
was a great tactician who lacked strategic knowledge, this view has already
been swept into the past. One does not reach the eighth place on the overall
list by accident with glaring holes in one’s armory. One need only look
at the five most important performances by the Italian this year– winner
of Reggio Emilio, second at the Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee Festival, tied with
Carlsen and Radjabov behind Aronian, first at the super open in Reykjavik, second
at the Tal Memorial in Moscow, behind Carlsen, and finally winner at Dortmund.
While very few have such an impressive résumé, almost all those
who do will be present in Sao Paulo and Bilbao.

Fabiano Caruana received a special invitation from the Grand Slam organizers
to play in the Masters Final because of his spectacular results over the last
months.

Schedule and results

São Paulo
Grand Slam Final

Round 1: Monday, September 24, 15h

Viswanathan Anand

½-½

Francisco Vallejo

Levon Aronian

1-0

Sergey Karjakin

Fabiano Caruana

1-0

Magnus Carlsen

Round 2: Tuesday, September 25, 15h

Francisco Vallejo

0-1

Magnus Carlsen

Sergey Karjakin

0-1

Fabiano Caruana

Viswanathan Anand

½-½

Levon Aronian

Round 3: Wednesday, September 26, 15h

Levon Aronian

½-½

Francisco Vallejo

Fabiano Caruana

½-½

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

½-½

Sergey Karjakin

Round 4: Friday, September 28, 15h

Fabiano Caruana

1-0

Francisco Vallejo

Magnus Carlsen

½-½

Levon Aronian

Sergey Karjakin

½-½

Viswanathan Anand

Round 5: Saturday, September 29, 15h

Francisco Vallejo

½-½

Sergey Karjakin

Viswanathan Anand

½-½

Magnus Carlsen

Levon Aronian

½-½

Fabiano Caruana

Bilbao Grand
Slam Final

Round 6: Monday, October 8, 17h

Francisco Vallejo

Viswanathan Anand

Sergey Karjakin

Magnus Carlsen

Fabiano Caruana

Levon Aronian

Round 7: Tuesday, October 9, 17h

Magnus Carlsen

Francisco Vallejo

Fabiano Caruana

Sergey Karjakin

Levon Aronian

Viswanathan Anand

Round 8: Wednesday, October 11, 17h

Francisco Vallejo

Levon Aronian

Viswanathan Anand

Fabiano Caruana

Sergey Karjakin

Magnus Carlsen

Round 9: Friday, October 12, 17h

Sergey Karjakin

Francisco Vallejo

Magnus Carlsen

Viswanathan Anand

Fabiano Caruana

Levon Aronian

Round 10: Saturday, October 13, 16:30h

Francisco Vallejo

Fabiano Caruana

Levon Aronian

Magnus Carlsen

Viswanathan Anand

Sergey Karjakin

Note: there are errors in the
Bilbao pairings. We will update the tables
as soon as the organisers have sent us a corrected version.

See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.